Courtney Casgraux, a Democrat running for Congress, is turning a potentially damaging revelation about her past into a platform of empowerment and critique of the current political landscape.
The 41-year-old, aspiring to represent Oregon’s 1st Congressional District, was previously a dominatrix in Manhattan, charging an estimated $500 per hour, the New York Post reported. A video of her working at a BDSM dungeon in her 20s and 30s was leaked online earlier this year. She was initially distraught after the videos leaked.
“[I was] just panicking … Then I was like, ‘Who did this?’ and I just started calling every single person that I pretty much knew from my past … I was like hyperventilating, crying,” she recounted, per the New York Post.
Despite the shock and the inability to find out who leaked the video, she chose to confront the situation head-on. The candidate perceives the leak as an attempt to shame her, but she refuses to be shamed for a past that she believes helped shape her current life. (RELATED: EXCLUSIVE: Democrat Candidate Claimed Assisted Suicide Could Be ‘Proper And Ethical’ For Terminally Ill Children)
Democrat congressional candidate who was a dominatrix embraces past with Playboy profile https://t.co/yADhU67REh pic.twitter.com/evFr9NYAfe
— New York Post (@nypost) November 18, 2023
“To shame me for something that helped create the life that I have today where I have opportunity . . . made me really mad. Because it felt like an attack on women, not just an attack on me,” Casgraux said.
The California native returned to the BDSM industry during the COVID-19 pandemic and worked at Donatella’s Dungeon in Manhattan, the New York Post reported.
In a separate interview with Fox News Digital, Casgraux expressed dissatisfaction with the current Democratic leadership at the federal level, particularly criticizing President Biden. She believes the party lacks “strong leadership” and has compromised national interests.
“Unfortunately, we live in a nation where there can be sex purchasers in Congress, but not still not sex workers,” she said, per Fox News Digital.